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Rob

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Everything posted by Rob

  1. Rob
    I kinda miss him already. We need a good villain. After all, how boring would Batman be if the Joker retired?
  2. Rob
    It's sad to see him go, but 3B is the hole we can best fill with internal options. I could probably make a pretty good case for a DeWitt/Baker platoon being only a win or so worse than Aramis. Vitters, Flaherty, LeMahieu, Marquez Smith, and even Marwin Gonzalez could also be potential positive contributors, though I wouldn't project any of that crew particularly close to 3.6 WAR. The Angels might make Alberto Callaspo available fairly cheaply (and he may actually may approach 3.6 WAR). In addition, there's a few other cheaply available guys like Kevin Kouzmanoff who might be worth taking a flier on. 1B and the front of the rotation are more pressing needs, as we have no real options to fill those spots.
  3. Rob
    You think he's ready? He's pretty close. Great command, anti-hr and lots of ground balls. The only real knock on his statistical profile is a marginal strikeout rate. Combine that with merely adequate MLB stuff and you've got a decent, cheap 5th starter. I'd take him over Coleman today and almost certainly would by midseason. I definitely prefer Rusin right now, but I'm actually starting to come around a bit on Coleman. I hated Coleman after his 4.11 ERA in 2010, and now I'm gonna pimp him a bit after posting a 6.40 ERA in 2011... which definitely feels weird. Thing is, his strikeout rate took a huge jump forward that nobody could have really anticipated. If he can find a way to keep most of the gains in his strikeout rate from this season while somehow eliminating the bump in his walk rate that came along with it, he could actually be a pretty decent pitcher.
  4. Rob
    If the banner at the top were to direct to the front page, you'd probably get more hits there. As is, there's no easy way to navigate from the forum back out to the front.
  5. Rob
    If we're going for a middle or back end of the rotation type, I'd either pay for Paul Maholm or go cheap with Chris Rusin. I'm not convinced any of the Capuano, Young, etc... types that will be available at the prices in between those two will provide enough value to make sense.
  6. Rob
    Oh, I wasn't trying to say I hope he ends up as a Type A. He'd have to have pretty much a carbon copy of his 2010 season to pull that off. But he's extremely likely to retain Type B status. And even if by the grace of god he does go crazy and is putting up numbers that might make him a Type A, well, that only makes him more attractive at the deadline. The Soriano contract debate is a whole thing I don't wanna try to hash out at 2:30 AM. I'll try to remember to get back in here and finish my thought on that one though.
  7. Rob
    Spangenberg only got drafted as high as he did because he made it very well known that he'd be willing to sign cheaply and quickly so that he could get started immediately. He was more of a mid-late first rounder on talent, if memory serves.
  8. Rob
    It's worth considering that right now Marlon Byrd is right on the borderline between being a Type A and Type B free agent. (He's currently the last A amongst NL 1B & OF). Honestly, unless we get overwhelmed with a package (and Byrd does not seem to be the type a team would overwhelm for) we may be best served by trying to trade Soriano, even if it means eating a good deal of his contract.
  9. Rob
    Don't we have a whole sub-board for Front Page Article Discussion? Honestly, it's been so long since I wrote an article I forgot all about it. :) Well, no better time than now to get the front page filled with some content again. It'd be about the right time of year if you wanted to get a bunch of people together to work out the Cubs top prospect list for NSBB again. That'd be a good start.
  10. Rob
    A few weeks ago he wanted LaHair dead. A couple weeks later he hears "Osaka is beautiful in April" and now he's talking about a bidding war? Oh yeah, he's coming around.
  11. Rob
    Caught an SQL error just a minute ago and the board seems to have slowed down a bit. Just FYI.
  12. Rob
    Don't we have a whole sub-board for Front Page Article Discussion?
  13. Rob
    Every discussion on SoSH is back to Garza and whether or not they can get him.
  14. Rob
    He's coming around. It's just a matter of time before he's leading the charge.
  15. Rob
    I have to admit I have never been that high on Lake, but him and Vitters have been real impressive during the AFL. I'm still worried about Vitters patience but I hope that this is something that both players can carry forward to next year. There's still plenty of room on the bandwagon for each of them. Come on board early and get a good seat! It'll be nice to have company.
  16. Rob
    There's a bigger issue at play than questions about whether the money would have to be guaranteed or if a contract could be incentive-based. Can we offer him enough playing time to be attractive? Sizemore could get a 3 year deal if he was willing to take a pretty low average annual value. But he's only going to want one year. And he'll want that one year because he's planning on using it to showcase how healthy and productive he can be so that he's more attractive as a free agent in the 2012 offseason. If anybody is thinking he'd be great in our 4th OF role, they're kidding themselves. He's gonna go where he can start. We've got Soriano entrenched in LF. We've got Byrd manning either center or right and Brett Jackson is by all accounts ready for the big show. So... how do we make room?
  17. Rob

    Dempster

    Rob replied to Tim's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    So my question is moot now. I hope Ryan has better luck in 2012. I'll be honest, even though the Cubs were probably better off if he were to turn down his option I'm kinda glad to have him back. He's a really nice guy and is probably gonna be paid about what he's worth, so it's not like he's some huge drain on us.
  18. Rob
    Soriano and Wells are both under contract through 2014. Wells makes $21 million per year. Soriano makes $18 million. I'd be willing to consider a swap depending on how much the Angels pick up. They're pretty similar players at this point. That said, it wouldn't make much sense for the Angels. They're already facing a pretty nasty roster crunch with Bourjos, Trout, Abreu, Hunter, and Wells through the OF/DH. And that's assuming Trumbo can handle 3B. He can't, and will probably be pushing for playing time at DH with Morales taking back over at 1B. They're looking to unload those guys, not swap one for another.
  19. Rob
    He's going to be 25 years old at seasons start, so he's still youngish. Soto is a free agent in 2014, and by then Castillo will be 27, and hopefully we'll have a good idea which one we want to move on with. If Castillo has a nice season in Iowa, we might want to consider trading Soto next offseason, depending on what kind of value he has, or else we could try to move one of the 2 this offseason. Catchers tend to take a little longer in the minors than most positions, so being 25 isn't a concern at all for me. As Raisin correctly pointed out, figuring out how much is him and how much is the PCL is the important part.
  20. Rob
    I definitely hadn't noticed that Castillo's 15 HR in Iowa came in just 61 games. Wow. What's the read on his defense now? I know when he was first on his way up the reports on his tools were outstanding, but he kept leading the league in passed balls and just seemed completely without polish behind the plate.
  21. Rob
    Wow, fascinating. I thought AzPhil was the only one that liked Castillo more than me (still have him hanging in that 14-16 slot for me). AzPhil still believes Castillo will be a starting backstop that can hit 20 HR's, I think (or something like that, recall seeing that in his comments somewhere). Oh .. .and Rhee is untouchable? Interesting, I thought I was high on Rhee, but untouchable? The question is who are the 5 most untouchable prospects. Basically another way of asking who their 5 most valuable prospects are. Of the non-2011 draftees and IFAs. I'm sure Baez would have popped up in there for certain otherwise.
  22. Rob
    I have it, and I wanna say I've posted some of it before. ETA: I just searched my own posts and couldn't find any excerpts. I talked about it a bit, but no direct quotes.
  23. Rob
    And could Sandberg handle it the first time a player didn't respect him?
  24. Rob
    There's a biography of his I have around here somewhere with some pretty damning quotes about how he feels about all those "people with spreadsheets trying to tell me how to play the game. I know how to play the game." (paraphrased, as I don't feel like finding the book) I wouldn't feel comfortable with him as a manager. He may do a fine job of riding young players and trying to keep guys on top of their fundamentals, but his ego is cause for concern in addition to his penchant for all things small ball.
  25. Rob
    If Lake does end up converting to the mound at any point, I may love him even more. I've always wanted that Brooks Kieschnick type of 25th man.
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